1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed generally to the filed of telecommunications, and, more particularly, the present invention is directed to a method for restoring subscriber or terminal equipment information after a fault in a databank system of a mobile radiotelephone network.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a conventional telecommunication system, wherein a subscriber or terminal equipment is reachable both via a mobile radiotelephone network as well as another communication network, information which depends on the current location of the subscriber terminal equipment-related information may have to be recovered if there is a fault in the database. For example, such subscriber, or terminal equipment-related information might be information about the current availability of a subscriber or terminal equipment or current terminal equipment-specific performance feature settings.
The book by M. Mouly, M. B. Pautet, "The GSM System for Mobile Communications", 1992, F-91120 Paliseau, at pages 470 through 473, describes updating the location database for terminal equipment in a mobile radiotelephone network as well as the restoration of subscriber or terminal equipment-related information within a database after a malfunction. Only information about the availability of a subscriber or terminal equipment within the mobile radiotelephone network are thereby stored restored. In the method disclosed herein for restoring information about the location of a terminal equipment within the mobile radiotelephone network, the uncertain, i.e. potentially incorrect information is marked as such in a first step. Other units of the mobile radiotelephone network are then apprised of the uncertain status of this information. These units also mark the corresponding information as uncertain. In order to maintain the signalling load of the communication network as low as possible, the uncertain data are only restored or, respectively, corrected when an event affecting the subscriber or the terminal equipment occurs. This may be, for example, a radio contact initialized from the terminal equipment. In order to assure such a radio contact within a specific time span, the information about the location of the subscriber or, respectively, of the terminal equipment is periodically updated. For example, this may occur once daily.
The known method, which is only applied within a mobile radiotelephone network, presumes that a unit which, for example, can offer information about the current location of a terminal equipment receives a message to the effect that the corresponding data is not correct due to a malfunction. When such a message is present, this data is updated, i.e. corrected, in case a specific action with respect to the terminal equipment arises. In order to ensure such an action within a specific time duration, it is known to initiate a periodic radio contact.
An object of the present invention is to offer a method for restoring subscriberrelated or terminal-equipment-related information after an error in a databank system of a mobile radiotelephone network for storing such information for that case wherein a subscriber or, respectively, a terminal equipment is reachable both via the mobile radiotelephone network as well as via another communication network. In such a system, information dependent on the current location of the subscriber or, respectively, terminal equipment may have to be restored.